Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of
fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used
to give the human body, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell.Perfume
compositions are an important part of many industries ranging from the luxury
goods sectors, food services industries, to manufacturers of various household
chemicals. The purpose of using perfume or fragrance compositions in these
industries is to affect customers through their sense of smell and entice
them into purchasing the perfume or perfumed product. As such there is significant
interest in producing a perfume formulation that people will find aesthetically
pleasing.
Modern perfumes are almost exclusively made from synthetic odorants that are
commonly synthesized from coal-tar and petroleum distillates, pine resins,
or other relatively cheap organic feedstock. Synthetics can provide fragrances
which are not found in nature. For instance, Calone, a compound of synthetic
origin, imparts a fresh ozonous metallic marine scent that is widely used
in contemporary perfumes. Synthetic aromatics are often used as an alternate
source of compounds that are not easily obtained from natural sources. For
example, linalool and coumarin are both naturally occurring compounds that
can be cheaply synthesized from terpenes. Orchid scents (typically salicylates)
are usually not obtained directly from the plant itself but are instead synthetically
created to match the fragrant compounds found in various orchids.
source : wikipedia